For buildings in both the commercial and private sectors, few things are more important than the safety of the building's inhabitants. Due to the fact that people tend to place a high value on their property and personal safety, the marketplace has responded with a variety of products that are intended to protect both property and the lives of those using it.
Perhaps the most common of these products is the smoke alarm. Such alarms have undoubtedly saved countless lives since their use began. However, such alarms are only effective if there is someone to hear them. Remote buildings on properties such as garages, barns, storage sheds and other similar unoccupied buildings are left unprotected even if equipped with smoke detectors.
Various attempts have been made to provide fire monitoring and alarm systems for remote properties. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,311, issued in the name of Galloway et al., describes a remote sensing system in which a sensor detecting intrusion, fire, or the like transmits corresponding signals to a master station. The Galloway system further includes an automated unique station identification assignment method.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,999, issued in the name of Ishii et al., describes a fire alarm system including a plurality and variety of analog sensors in electrical communication with a single alarm section.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,468, issued in the name of Banga, describes a smoke alarm system with a plurality of sensors and transmitters for transmitting an alarm to a central monitoring unithe central monitoring unit is capable of automatically contacting emergency personnel via a telephone line when the alarm is issued. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these systems fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such systems do not provide a desirable range of sensing capabilities such as those suitable for detecting heating system failure in wintertime. Furthermore, many such systems do not provide useful post-installation customizability or functionality. Also, many such systems do not provide a means for users to receive and transmit information beyond that automatically generated by the system. Accordingly, there exists a need for smoke and heat sensing and alarming system without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.